


this isn't like the stories (it's so much better)

by orphan_account



Series: i want to forget everything but you [1]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Abusive Lonnie Byers, Abusive Neil Hargrove, F/F, Lonnie Byers Being an Asshole, M/M, angst but also fluff but also pining, idk its everything, jonathan loves fairytales, neil hargrove is an asshole, parents suck except joyce
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:41:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24482203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: in which jonathan loves fairytales, fathers suck, steve redeems himself and of course, they save each other.
Relationships: Jonathan Byers/Steve Harrington, Robin Buckley/Nancy Wheeler
Series: i want to forget everything but you [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1768462
Comments: 11
Kudos: 109





	this isn't like the stories (it's so much better)

**Author's Note:**

> this is a fic set in the same universe as i want to forget everything but you, even though you don't need to read either one to understand the other.

_ Once upon a time…  _

Jonathan Byers is reading a fairytale in the public library, because his father is angry and he needs a happy ending right now. Sure, he might be getting a little too old for Rapunzel, but it’s one of his favorites. 

Someone’s trapped in a tower until they’re rescued by someone who literally sweeps them off their feet? Jonathan tries to deny it, but that’s what his dreams are made of on the nights where he wakes up smiling. The nights where he has to go sit with his mom until he stops crying… he doesn’t want to think about those nights. 

Someone knocks the book out of his hand and says, “Whatcha reading,  _ fairy?”  _

He might be nine years old, but he knows what that word means. His dad’s tossed it at him too many times to count. The one good thing about being Lonnie Byers’ son is that he knows how to fight- he learned by example- so, he clenches a fist and stands up. 

“Tommy, leave him alone. It’s a freaking library,” another voice interrupts and Jonathan blinks. 

Standing there is a boy with shaggy brown hair and beautiful brown eyes, balancing a stack of books that he doesn’t look too happy about reading. 

“Look at him! He’s reading  _ fairy tales,”  _ Tommy H, who Jonathan recognizes from the playground, sneers as he gestures towards the book on the floor with a look of disgust usually only reserved for dog poop on the bottom of your shoe. 

“And?” the other boy asks. 

Tommy H groans, “Enjoy,  _ princess.”  _

Then, he leaves. 

“Sorry about my friend. He’s stupid,” the boy extends a hand, “I’m Steve.” 

“Jonathan,” Jonathan mumbles. 

Steve picks up the book and hands it to him. Their fingers brush and Jonathan pulls back, gripping the book as tightly as he can. He doesn’t know where those sparks came from, only knows that they shouldn’t be there. 

“Nice to meet you, Jonathan.” 

And then, the boy’s gone, running after his friend and Jonathan’s left behind, staring at the spot on his hand that Steve touched. 

That night, for the first time, Jonathan dreams that Steve’s the one who saves him. 

_ There was a boy in a castle  _

The dreams stop eventually, because Jonathan refuses to let himself think about them once he hits middle school, but Steve doesn’t go away. 

The night his dad leaves, Will and Jonathan stay up all night building Castle Byers and then, they sit in the fort and read fairy tales for hours until neither of them are crying and they can believe in once upon a time again. 

The next day, Jonathan’s mom makes him go to school because he’s gotta keep his grades up if he wants to go to NYU. 

So, he staggers through the hallways with red eyes and the only ones who notice are Tommy H. and Carol who call him a zombie and laugh when he runs into a door that he didn’t see because someone had just slapped their books down on one of the desks and he was back the night before, when his dad was hitting Will and his mom was screaming and… 

“Guys. Stop it.” 

Jonathan looks up from where he’s been staring at his feet because he would recognize that voice anywhere and sure enough, there’s Steve Harrington, his arms crossed and glaring at his two friends. 

“We were just messing around!” Carol replies. 

“Well don’t,” Steve snaps and the two of them groan, then follow the masses towards the cafeteria. 

“Hey, you ok?” the boy asks after a little bit and Jonathan blinks. 

“What?” 

“Your cheek. You’ve got a bruise,” Steve reaches out and brushes his cheek, which makes him jump back a little. It’s a mix of  _ please don’t hurt me  _ and  _ why do I feel like I’m on fire now?  _ that makes Jonathan uncomfortable. 

“Sorry,” the other boy mutters and Jonathan wants to say that he has nothing to be sorry for, because none of this is his fault. 

“It’s ok,” is all he can mumble in response. 

“Look, I know…,” Steve sighs, “My dad is like that too. So, if you ever need anyone…” 

“Ok,” Jonathan says and he doesn’t know if he wants to hug Steve or shake his hand or just say thank you, so he does none of them. Instead, he stares at the ground again and hides behind narrowed eyes. 

“Ok, Jonathan,” Steve says and then, he blends back into the sea of students flowing past. 

_ He knows my name,  _ Jonathan thinks and smiles a little bit to himself. He gets a weird look from Nancy Wheeler, but he keeps grinning all the way home. 

When Will asks him if something good happened today, he just laughs a little bit in response. 

What’s he supposed to say? There’s no words to describe it. 

_ And a boy with a spiked bat  _

Jonathan has absolutely no idea how to feel about Steve Harrington. First, he’s the boy who protected him in the library, who offered to be there if his dad beat him up again (didn’t matter that Lonnie’s gone now, only showing up to get his son’s life insurance) and then, he’s breaking Jonathan’s camera, calling Nancy a slut and saying those  _ things  _ about Will?! 

Will, who’s been missing for who knows how long, who’s probably terrified out of his mind  _ if he’s still alive  _ because some kind of monster may have taken him _ ,  _ who Jonathan just wants to get back because it’s his brother who he loves more than anything and… 

And Steve has the audacity to blame  _ him?  _

Jonathan doesn’t remember the fairy tales or the sparks or the way he felt like he was on fire. He just sees  _ red  _ and charges, fists out and ready because at the end of the day, he’s his father’s son and destroying things is all his hands have ever been good for. 

Then, things happen  _ way too fast  _ and the palm of his hand is bleeding and Steve Harrington is standing in his living room, clutching the bat that he hammered nails into. 

And Jonathan looks at him, standing a little bit in front of him and Nancy and he’s reminded of the fairy tales where someone gets swept off their feet. Even though he can save himself, it sure is something to watch Steve with that bat, fighting off monsters like it’s nothing, looking at Jonathan like he  _ cares.  _

There’s something he buried a long time ago that starts blooming in his chest again, something between sparks and flowers that makes Jonathan’s head hurt because he’s never thought about any other guys that way. Just Steve. 

Maybe it’s because he hasn’t really thought about  _ anyone  _ else like that. 

Sure, he and Nancy had shared moments where his heart was racing and he wanted to grin uncontrollably, but this is different. This is something for the storybooks, something that will go down in history. It’s epic and uncontrollable and… Jonathan doesn’t know how he feels about it. 

_ Who comes to save him  _

When Will is  _ finally  _ back from whatever darkness took him, Jonathan is just so happy to have his brother back that he doesn’t think about Steve Harrington until Christmastime. 

He goes to pick up Will from the Wheeler house and there’s Nancy, looking lovely and handing him a gift before her lips brush his cheek. He turns bright red- can’t help it. First, he feels guilty that he didn’t get anything for her and second, there may not be the electricity he felt when his hand brushed Steve’s back when… but there’s something there. 

Will tears into the wrapping paper of a brand new camera and spends the rest of the car ride talking animatedly about the new D&D campaign he and his friends have started. 

Apparently, Mike’s been planning it for a while and Will’s drawn all the pictures and he hopes Mike will like them and he’s super excited because he finally beat the demogorgon and Jonathan’s smiling so wide that he wants to laugh out loud at everything. 

When he gets home, he takes out the camera and starts taking pictures. The film disappears quickly and when he goes to get it developed, there are three pictures at the beginning that the doesn’t remember taking, but he looks at them anyway, squinting and trying to make sense of why there’s a letter written in chicken scratch. 

_ Dear Jonathan,  _

_ I’m so sorry for everything. I know sorry doesn’t cut it- not at all, but that’s the only thing I can say. First, I’m sorry for breaking your camera, so I got you this new one to make up for it. My dad’s always buying me things after he kicks me around, so I guess it runs in the family. But, I’m not going to do anything like that again- I’m trying to be a better person, I really am. Promise. Second, I’m so sorry for saying such horrible things and generally, being a dick. You didn’t deserve any of that- I was dealing with some shit and I shouldn’t have taken it out on you. Finally, I’m sorry that I got all psycho jealous on you. Neither you nor Nancy deserved that. You’re a good person and I appreciate you being there for her more than you know. I understand if you can’t forgive me, but I really hope you will and that maybe, we can be…  _

There’s words crossed out there and then  _ cool  _ is scrawled after a couple lines of Steve changing his mind about what to write. Jonathan wonders what he was going to say. 

_ Anyway, I’m really glad your brother’s safe. Happy holidays.  _

_ -Steve  _

Jonathan stares at the photos longer than necessary and then stuffs them into a shoebox under his bed, covering them up with tissue paper for good measure. He knows his dad isn’t around anymore to freak out about them, but just in case… old habits die hard. 

Over the next few days, he takes them out and looks at them, to make sure they’re real and not just something he read about. But, those pictures and that letter are always there and when Steve starts eating lunch with him and Nancy, sitting on the roof of Jonathan’s car, Jonathan can’t stop smiling. 

_ And then, they save each other _

After everything that happened, Jonathan finds himself being drawn to Steve more and more. He and Nancy break up after realizing that they love each other, but not in that way anymore. They were good, really good, for a while and then, they weren’t. 

The night of Starcourt, they talked about it until the sun came up and they laughed together, cried together, then held each other and went their separate (but connected) ways. 

Sometimes, they still sleep over at one another’s houses if the nightmares get to be too much or they feel lonely again. And yeah, they still call each other all the time because their lives are intertwined now and they love each other, even if it’s not like the way the fairytales say. 

They don’t exactly announce that they’ve broken up, but they start inviting Steve and Robin to absolutely everything, so it’s pretty obvious. Besides, Nancy ogles Robin more than she even breathes in his direction, so she can’t complain about him gaping at Steve when he tosses his head back and laughs like the entire world is in front of him. So, Jonathan thinks it’s pretty obvious. 

Then, one day, they’re driving around town with Nancy and Robin all over each other in the back seat and Jonathan can’t stop staring at the way Steve glows in the sunlight. 

“Whatcha looking at, Byers?” he asks and Jonathan blinks. 

“Uhhh… the trees over there,” he gestures vaguely past Steve and out the window. Steve just adjusts his sunglasses and smiles a little, so maybe he can read Jonathan’s mind. It wouldn’t be surprising- evil Russians built a freaking gate to another dimension under the new mall, half the town, including Jonathan’s brother, was possessed by a creature from said dimension AND his kind of sister used to be able to move stuff with her mind. Stranger things have happened. 

It’d just be really freaking embarrassing. 

They pull into the Byers driveway and Nancy grasps Robin’s hand while they walk in. Jonathan makes a mental note to grill her about everything that went down while he was on vacation, but gets distracted by Steve reaching over to brush his cheek. 

“Crumb,” he smiles and Jonathan makes a noise somewhere between a grunt and an agreement. 

Nancy smirks at him and he shoots her a glare. 

They walk inside to where the kids are all over the living room and the ground is covered with pieces of paper. Jonathan freezes for a second, thinking maybe there’s another monster and his breathing gets shallow and Steve reaches over to grab his hand and squeeze it a little. 

He lets go too soon. 

Jonathan picks up a piece of paper and recognizes Mike’s handwriting on a plan with a poorly drawn diagram of Castle Byers and a redheaded stick figure sitting inside it surrounded by food. 

“What’s this?” he asks, frowning because he’s afraid and doesn’t want his brother to get hurt. 

Dustin chirps, “We’re kidnapping Max so she doesn’t have to live with her douchebag step-dad anymore!” 

Jonathan continues going through the papers, staring at the complicated escape routes, living arrangements and reasons why Neil Hargrove deserves to rot in hell. Well, at least the colorful language El’s been learning from his mom attempting to cook is good for something. 

Reading through all the kids’ plans, he’s too reminded of how he and Will would draw Castle Byers together when Lonnie got really mad and then sit in it for hours when he finally left. 

“I’m gonna kill this son of a bitch!” Steve shouts as he holds a piece of paper in his hand so tight that it crumples. Then, Jonathan remembers what Steve said the day after his dad left, so he reaches out and gives his hand a gentle squeeze. They do that now, right? 

Steve drags him along as he storms out of the house and everyone follows him. 

Jonathan slides into the passenger seat and they’re roaring down the road towards Neil Hargrove’s house before he knows it. His stomach is clenching up when he imagines what Max might’ve gone through- the list was proof enough. For a minute, he even feels bad for  _ Billy Hargrove  _ and that’s saying something. No matter how shitty you are, you don’t deserve that. Nobody does. 

Steve’s out of the car first, running to the door and knocking on it with his fists clenched. 

When Neil opens the door, he goes absolutely wild- cornering the man and glaring at him, screaming that Max is  _ just a kid.  _ He’s a glorious, vengeful angel and Jonathan can’t look away. 

That feeling starts in his chest again- the one he used to be so afraid of and now, he welcomes it, as he and Robin come up behind Steve and stare the asshole down. When Neil’s face turns redder and redder and he starts shouting back that Steve needs to mind his own business, Jonathan steps in. 

Suddenly, years of being slapped around and hiding in his room, blasting music at top volume so he didn’t hear his dad screaming and watching his brother get torn apart too come flying out of him and he’s yelling. When Max’s stepdad triers to lunge at Steve, Jonathan’s fists fly up because  _ no, not him  _ and he’s punching over and over and over until it’s not Neil Hargrove anymore, but it’s his own father that told him he’d never be good enough, his own father that used him as an ashtray, his own father that led by example. 

Then, Steve is pulling him away after he only gets a few punches in and wraps his hands around Jonathan’s waist while he sobs for the kid that didn’t get a childhood. But, then, he remembers that this was the same boy who believed in once upon a time and happy endings, so he looks up at Steve’s brown eyes and lets himself hope. 

_ It ends like all good fairytales do _

Later that night, they’re in the Wheeler basement, watching Star Wars at Dustin’s insistence and everyone else is asleep. Steve is staring intently at the movie screen with his chin propped up in his hands and admiring Han Solo. 

“I’m just saying… Harrison Ford is  _ hot,”  _ he says for the fiftieth time. 

“I never disagreed with you,” Jonathan replies, too busy staring at Steve to pay attention to the movie. 

When the movie’s over, they sit in silence and listen to everyone else breathe. Jonathan can feel Steve’s eyes on him, but he doesn’t stare back because he doesn't have his feelings written all over his face. 

“You’re beautiful,” he thinks he hears, but he can’t be sure, so he ignores it until he feels Steve on the coach shifting around to face him. 

“Jonathan?” he asks and Jonathan lets out a  _ hmmm  _ in response. 

“What would you do if I kissed you?” 

“Probably kiss back,” he mumbles without thinking about it, because this feels like one of those dreams where they ride off into the sunset on a white stallion together. 

“So, can I?” 

Jonathan turns and thinks  _ holy shit, he’s so close  _ before he nods and leans in and they’re kissing. The sparks and electricity and the way Jonathan feels like he’s on fire and that feeling in his chest are all bursting out of him so much that he wouldn’t be surprised if he just combusted. When Steve pulls away, Jonathan can feel his smile in the dark. 

“I’ve wanted to do that for so long,” he murmurs. 

“How long?” Jonathan whispers back. 

“Since I first saw you in the library, reading fairy tales. I thought, I’m going to be the one to save him,” Steve’s talking, but it’s like Jonathan’s dreaming again and he doesn’t want to be. He wants this to be real so badly. So, he leans in and kisses him again. 

Yep.  _ Definitely  _ real. 

“Me too,” he says finally and raises a mental middle finger to his dad, wherever that asshole is. 

This isn’t how the stories go. It’s so much better. 

_ With a happily ever after.  _

  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> THE END! Thanks for reading :) Hope you liked it- comments and kudos give me life, friends. Love you!!


End file.
